THE LURE OF GOLD
"Philip, I want to tell you something."
"Something pleasant?"
"No."
"Then why tell me?"
"Because, unhappily, it must be told. I hope you will forgive me,
though I shall never forgive myself. Oh, my dear, my dear, why did we
ever meet? And what am I to say? I--well, I have promised to marry
another man."
"Disgraceful!" said Philip.
Though Iris's faltered confession might fairly be regarded as
astounding, Philip was unmoved. The German captain had given him a
cigar, and he was examining it with a suspicion that was pardonable
after the first few whiffs.
"Philip dear, this is quite serious," said Iris, momentarily
withdrawing her wistful gaze from the far-away line where sapphire sea
and amber sky met in harmony. Northeastern Brazil is a favored clime.
Bad weather is there a mere link, as it were, between unbroken weeks of
brilliant sunshine, when nature lolls in the warmth and stirs herself
only at night under the moon and the stars. That dingy trader, the
_Unser Fritz_, ostensibly carrying wool and guano from the Argentine to
Hamburg, was now swinging west at less than half speed over the long
rollers which alone bore testimony to the recent gale. Already a deep
tint of crimson haze over the western horizon was eloquent, in nature's
speech, of land ahead. At her present pace, the _Unser Fritz_ would
enter the harbor at Pernambuco on the following morning.
Iris, her troubled face resting on her hands, her elbows propped on the
rails of the poop on the port side, looked at Philip with an intense
sadness that was seemingly lost on him. His doubts concerning the
cigar had grown into a certainty. He cast it into the sea.
"I really mean what I say," she continued in a low voice that vibrated
with emotion, for her obvious distress was enhanced by his evident
belief that she was jesting. "I have given my word--written
it--entered into a most solemn obligation. Somehow, the prospect of
reaching a civilized place to-morrow induces a more ordered state of
mind than has been possible since--since the _Andromeda_ was lost."
"Who is he?" demanded Hozier darkly. "Coke is married. So is Watts.
Dom Corria has other fish to fry than to dream of committing bigamy.
Of course, I am well aware that you have been flirting outrageously
with San Benavides----"
"Please don't make my duty harder for me," pleaded Iris. "Before I met
you, before we spoke to each other that first day at Liverpool, I had
promised to marry Mr. Bulmer, an old friend of my uncle's----"
"Oh,--he? . . . I am sorry for Mr. Bulmer, but it can't be done,"
interrupted Hozier.
"Philip, you do not understand. I--I cared for nobody then . . . and
my uncle said he was in danger of bankruptcy . . . and Mr. Bulmer
undertook to help him if I would consent. . . ."
"Yes," agreed Philip, with an air of pleasant detachment, "I see. You
are in a first-rate fix. I was always prepared for that. Coke told me
about Bulmer--warned me off, so to speak. I forgot his claims at odd
times, just for a minute or so, but he is a real bugbear--a sort of
matrimonial bogey-man. If all goes well, and we enter Pernambuco
without being fired at, you will be handed over to the British Consul,
and he will send a rousing telegram about you to England. Bulmer, of
course, will cause a rare stir at home. Who wouldn't? No wonder you
are scared! It seems to me that there is only one safe line of action
left open."
Iris did not respond to his raillery. She was despondent, nervous,
uncertain of her own strength, afraid of the hurricane of publicity
that would shortly swoop down on her.
"I wish you would realize how I feel in this matter," she said, with a
persistence that was at least creditable to her honesty of purpose. "A
woman's word should be held as sacred as a man's, Philip."
He turned and met her eyes. There was a tender smile on his lips.
"So you really believe you will be compelled to marry Mr. Bulmer?" he
cried.
"Oh, don't be horrid!" she almost sobbed. "I cuc--cuc--can't help it."
"I have given some thought to the problem myself," he said, for, in
truth, he was beginning to be alarmed by her tenacity, though
determined not to let her perceive his changed mood. "Curiously
enough, I was thinking more of your dilemma than of the signals when we
were overhauled by the _Sao Geronimo_ this morning. Odd, isn't it, how
things pop into one's mind at the most unexpected moments? While I was
coding our explanation that we were putting into Pernambuco for
repairs, and that no steam yacht had been sighted between here and the
River Plate, I was really trying to imagine what the cruiser's people
would have said if I had told them the actual truth."
His apparent gravity drew the girl's thoughts for an instant from
contemplating her own unhappiness.
"How could you have done that?" she asked. "We are going there to suit
Senhor De Sylva's ends. We have suffered so much already for his sake
that we could hardly betray him now."
Hozier spread wide his hands with a fine affectation of amazement.
"I wasn't talking about De Sylva," he cried. "My remarks were strictly
confined to the question of your marriage. I know you far too well,
Iris, to permit you to go back to Bootle to be lectured and browbeaten
by your uncle. I have never seen him, but, from all accounts, he is a
rather remarkable person. He likes to have his own way, irrespective
of other folks' feelings. I am a good guesser, Iris. I have a pretty
fair notion why Coke meant to leave our poor ship's bones on a South
American reef. I appreciate exactly how well it would serve Mr. David
Verity's interests if his niece married a wealthy old party like
Bulmer. By the way how old is Bulmer?"
"Nearly seventy."
Even Iris herself smiled then, though her tremulous mirth threatened to
dissolve in tears.
"Ah, that's a pity," said Hozier.
"It is very unkind of you to treat me in this manner," she protested.
"But I am trying to help you. I say it is a pity that Bulmer should be
a patriarch, because his only hope of marrying you is that I shall die
first. Even then he must be prepared to espouse my widow. By the way,
is it disrespectful to describe him as a patriarch? Isn't there some
proverb about three score years and ten?"
"Philip, if only you would appreciate my dreadful position----"
"I do. It ought to be ended. The first parson we meet shall be
commandeered. Don't you see, dear, we really must get married at
Pernambuco? That is what I wanted to signal to the cruiser: 'The
_Unser Fritz_ is taking a happy couple to church.' Wouldn't that have
been a surprise?"
Iris clenched her little hands in despair. Why did he not understand
her misery? Though she was unwavering in her resolution to keep faith
with the man who had twitted her with taking all and giving nothing in
return, she could not wholly restrain the tumult in her veins. Married
in Pernambuco! Ah, if only that were possible! Yet she did not flinch
from the lover-like scrutiny with which Philip now favored her.
"I am sure we would be happy together," she said, with a pathetic
confidence that tempted him strongly to take her in his arms and kiss
away her fears. "But we must be brave, Philip dear, brave in the
peaceful hours as in those which call for another sort of courage.
Last night we lived in a different world. We looked at death, you and
I together, not once but many times, and you, at least, kept him at
bay. But that is past. To-day we are going back to the commonplace.
We must forget what happened in the land of dreams. I will never love
any man but you, Philip; yet--I cannot marry you."
"You will marry me--in Pernambuco."
"I will not because I may not. Oh, spare me any more of this! I
cannot bear it. Have pity, dear!"
"Iris, let us at least look at the position calmly. Do you really
think that fate's own decree should be set aside merely to keep David
Verity out of the Bankruptcy Court?"
"I have given my promise, and those two men are certain I will keep it."
"Ah, they shall release you. What then?"
"You do not know my uncle, or Mr. Bulmer. Money is their god. They
would tell you that money can control fate. We, you and I, might
despise their creed, but how am I to shirk the claims of gratitude? I
owe everything to my uncle. He rescued my mother and me from dire
poverty. He gave us freely of his abundance. Would you have me fail
him now that he seeks my aid? Ah, me! If only I had never come on
this mad voyage! But it is too late to think of that now. Perhaps--if
I had not promised--I might steel my heart against him--but, Philip,
you would never think highly of me again if I were so ready to rend the
hand that fed me. We have had our hour, dear. Its memory will never
leave me. I shall think of you, dream of you, when, it may be, some
other girl--oh, no, I do not mean that! Philip, don't be angry with me
to-day. You are wringing my heart!"
It was in Hozier's mind to scoff in no measured terms at the absurd
theory that he should renounce his oft-won bride because a pair of
elderly gentlemen in Bootle had made a bargain in which she was staked
against so many bags of gold. But pity for her suffering joined forces
with a fine certainty that fortune would not play such a scurvy trick
as to rob him of his divinity after leading him through an Inferno to
the very gate of Paradise. For that is how he regarded the perils of
Fernando Noronha. He was young, and the ethics of youth cling to
romance. It seemed only right and just that he should have been proved
worthy of Iris ere he gained the heaven of her love. There might be
portals yet unseen, with guardian furies waiting to entrap him, and he
would brave them all for her dear sake. But his very soul rebelled
against the notion that he had become her chosen knight merely to
gratify the unholy ardor of some decrepit millionaire. He laughed
savagely at the fantasy, and his protest burst into words strange on
his lips.
"I shall never give you up to any other man," he said. "I have won you
by the sword, and, please God, I shall keep you against all claimants.
Twenty-two men sailed out of Liverpool on board the Andromeda, and it
was given to me among the twenty-two that I should pluck you from
darkness into light. I had only seen you that day on the wharf, yet I
was thinking of you constantly, little dreaming that you were within a
few yards of me all the time. I was planning some means of meeting you
again when our surly-tempered skipper bade me burst in the door that
kept you from me. And that is what I have been doing ever since,
Iris--breaking down barriers, smashing them, whether they were flesh
and blood or nature's own obstacles, so that I might not lose you.
Give you up! Not while I live! Why, you yourself dragged me away from
certain death when I was lying unconscious on the _Andromeda's_ deck.
A second time, you saved not me alone but the ten others who are left
out of the twenty-two, by bringing us back to Grand-père in the hour
that our escape seemed to be assured had we put out to sea. We are
more than quits, dear heart, when we strike a balance of mutual
service. We are bound by a tie of comradeship that is denied to most.
And who shall sever it? The man who gains three times the worth of his
ship by reason of the very dangers we have shared! To state such a mad
proposition is to answer it. Who is he that he should sunder those
whom God has joined together? And what other man and woman now
breathing can lay better claim than we to have been joined by the
Almighty?"
The strange exigencies of their lives during the past two days had
ordained that this should be Philip's first avowal of his feelings.
Under the stress of overpowering impulse he had clasped Iris to his
heart when they were parting on the island. In obedience to a stronger
law than any hitherto revealed to her innocent consciousness the girl
had flown to his arms when he came to the hut. And that was all their
love-making, two blissful moments of delirium wrenched from a time of a
gaunt tragedy, and followed by a few hours of self-negation. Yet they
sufficed--to the man--and the woman is never too ready to count the
cost when her heart declares its passion.
But the morrow was not to be denied. Its bitter awakening had come.
In the very agony of a sublime withdrawal Iris realized what manner of
man this was whom she had determined to thrust aside so that she might
keep her troth. She dared not look at him. She could not compel her
quivering lips to frame a word of excuse or reiterated resolve. With a
heart-breaking cry of sheer anguish she fled from him, running away
along the deck with the uncertain steps of some sorely stricken
creature of the wild.
He did not try to restrain her. Heedless of the perplexed scowl with
which Coke was watching him from the bridge, he looked after her until
she vanished in the cabin which had been vacated for her use by the
chief engineer of the vessel. Even her manifest distress gave him a
sense of riotous joy that was hardly distinguishable from the keenest
spiritual suffering.
"Give you up!" he muttered again. "No, Iris, not if Satan brought
every dead Verity to aid the living one in his demand."
Coke, to whom tact was anathema, chose that unhappy instant to summon
him to take charge of the ship. The German master and crew had not
caused trouble to their conquerors after the first short struggle.
They washed their hands of responsibility, professed to be satisfied
with the written indemnity and promise of reward given by De Sylva, and
otherwise placed the resources of the vessel entirely at his disposal.
A more peaceable set of men never existed. Though they numbered
sixteen, three more than the usurpers, it was quite certain that the
thought of further resistance never entered their minds. If anything,
they hailed the adventure with decorous hilarity. It formed a welcome
break in the monotony of their drab lives. Of course, they were
utterly incredulous as to the ability of a scarecrow like Dom Corria to
fulfil his financial pledges. Therein they erred. He was really a
very rich man, having followed the illustrious example set by
generations of South American Presidents in accumulating a fine
collection of gilt-edged scrip during his tenure of office, which said
scrip was safely lodged in London, Paris, and New York. But the world
always refuses to associate rags with affluence, and these worthy
Teutons regarded De Sylva and Coke as the leaders of a gang of
dangerous lunatics who should be humored in every possible way until a
port was reached.
It was precisely that question of a port which had engaged Coke in
earnest consultation with De Sylva and San Benavides on the bridge
while Iris and Hozier were lacerating each other's feelings on the poop.
Apparently, the point was settled when Hozier joined the triumvirate.
Coke glanced at the compass, and placed the engine-room telegraph at
"Full Speed Ahead," for the _Unser Fritz_ had once been a British ship,
and still retained her English appliances.
"Keep 'er edgin' south a bit," said he to Hozier. "There's no knowin'
w'en that crimson cruiser will show up again, but we must try and steal
a knot or two afore sundown."
The order roused Hozier from his stupor of wrathful bewilderment.
"Why south?" he asked. "If anything, Pernambuco lies north of our
present course."
"We're givin' Pernambuco the go-by. It's Maceio for us, quick as we
can get there."
Hozier was in no humor for conciliatory methods. He turned on his
heel, and walked straight to where De Sylva was leaning against the
rails.
"Captain Coke tells me that we are not making for Pernambuco," he said,
meeting the older man's penetrating gaze with a glance as firm and
self-contained.
"That is what we have arranged," said Dom Corria.
"It does not seem to have occurred to you that there is one person on
board this ship whose interests are vastly more important than yours,
senhor."
"Meaning Miss Yorke?" asked the other, who did not require to look
twice at this stern-visaged man to grasp the futility of any words but
the plainest.
"Yes."
"She will be safer at Maceio than at Pernambuco. Our only danger at
either place will be encountered at the actual moment of landing. At
Maceio there is practically no risk of finding a warship in the harbor.
That is why we are going there."
"And not because you are more likely to find adherents there?"
"It is a much smaller town than Pernambuco, and my strength lies
outside the large cities, I admit. But there can be no question as to
our wisdom in preferring Maceio, even where the young lady's well-being
is concerned."
"I think differently. At Maceio there are few, if any, Europeans. At
Pernambuco the large English-speaking community will protect her, no
matter what President is in power. I must ask you to reconsider your
plan. Land Miss Yorke and me at Pernambuco, and then betake yourself
and those who follow you where you will."
Coke jerked himself into the dispute.
"'Ere, wot's wrong now?" he demanded angrily. "Since w'en 'as a second
officer begun to fix the ship's course?"
"I am not your second officer, nor are you my commander," said Philip.
"At present we are fellow-pirates, or, at best, running the gravest
risk of being regarded as pirates by any court of law. I don't care a
cent personally what port we make, but I do care most emphatically for
Miss Yorke's safety."
"We've argied the pros an' cons, an' it's to be Maceio," growled Coke.
Dom Corria's precise tones broke in on what threatened to develop into
a serious dispute.
"You would have been asked to join in the discussion, if, apparently,
you were not better engaged at the moment, Mr. Hozier," he said. "I
assure you, on my honor, that there are many reasons in favor of Maceio
even from the exclusive point of view of Miss Yorke's immediate future.
She will be well cared for. I promise to make that my first
consideration. The army is mainly for me, and Senhor San Benavides's
regiment is stationed at Maceio. The navy, on the other hand, supports
Dom Miguel Barraca, who supplanted me, and we shall surely meet a
cruiser or gunboat at Pernambuco. You see, therefore, that common
prudence----"
"I see that, whether willing or not, we are to be made the tools of
your ambition," interrupted Hozier curtly. "It is also fairly evident
that I am the only man of the _Andromeda's_ company whom you have not
bribed to obey you. Well, be warned now by me. If circumstances fail
to justify your change of route, I shall make it my business to settle
at least one revolution in Brazil by cracking your skull."
San Benavides, hearing the names of the two ports, understood exactly
why the young Englishman was making such a strenuous protest. He moved
nearer, laying an ostentatious hand on the sword that clanked
everlastingly at his heels. He had never been taught, it seemed, that
a man who can use his fists commands a readier weapon than a sword in
its scabbard. Hozier eyed him. There was no love lost between them.
For a fraction of a second San Benavides was in a position of real
peril.
Then Dom Corria said coldly:
"No interference, I pray you, Senhor Adjudante. Kindly withdraw."
His tone was eminently official. San Benavides saluted and stepped
back. The dark scar on De Sylva's forehead had grown a shade lighter,
but there was no other visible sign of anger in his face, and his
luminous eyes peered steadily into Hozier's.
"Let me understand!" he said. "You hold my life as forfeit if any
mischance befalls Miss Yorke?"
"Yes."
"I accept that. Of course, you no longer challenge my direction of
affairs?"
"I am no match for you in argument, senhor, but I do want you to
believe that I shall keep my part of the compact."
Coke, familiar with De Sylva's resources as a debater, and by no means
unwilling to see Hozier "taken down a peg," as he phrased it; eager,
too, to witness the Brazilian officer's discomfiture if the second mate
"handed it to him," thought it was time to assert himself.
"I'm goin' to 'ave a nap," he announced. "Either you or Watts must
take 'old. W'ich is it to be?"
"No need to ask Mr. Hozier any such question," said the suave Dom
Corria. "You can trust him implicitly. He is with us now--to the
death. Captain San Benavides, a word with you."
"South a bit," repeated the skipper. "Call me at two bells in the
second dog."
He was turning to leave the bridge with the Brazilians when a cheery
voice came from a gangway beneath.
"Yah, yah, mine frent--that's the proper lubricant. I wouldn't give
you tuppence a dozen for your bloomin' lager. Well, just a freshener.
Thanks. Ik danky shun!"
"You spik Tcherman vare goot," was the reply.
"Talk a little of all sorts. Used to sing a Jarman song once. What
was that you was a-hummin' in your cabin? Nice chune. I've a musical
ear meself."
Someone sang a verse in a subdued baritone, tremulous with sentiment.
The melody was haunting, the words almost pathetic under the conditions
of life on board the disheveled _Unser Fritz_. They told of Vienna,
the city beloved of its sons.
Es gibt nur eine Kaiser Stadt,
Es gibt nur eine Wien.
"Shake, me boy!" cried the enraptured Watts to the ship's captain. "I
do'n' know wot it's all about, but it's reel fine. Something to do
with a gal, I expect. Well, 'ere's one of the same kidney:
I know a maiden fair to see,
Take care!
She can both false and friendly be,
Beware, beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!"
Mr. Watts was both charmed and surprised when the friendly skipper
joined in the concluding lines in his own language. But his pleasure
was short-lived. Coke's inflamed visage glowered into the mess room.
"Sink me if you ain't a daisy!" he roared, pouncing on a three-quarters
filled bottle of rum. "D'you fancy we're goin' to land you at Maceio
cryin' drunk? No, sir, not this time. Over it goes, an' if you ain't
dam careful, over you go after it!"
Watts could have wept without the artificial stimulus of the rum. To
see good liquor slung into the sea in that fashion--well, it was a sin,
that's wot it was! But Coke's furious eye quelled him; and revel and
song ceased.
Above, on the bridge, Hozier smiled sourly at the squall which had so
suddenly beset the fair argosy of the convivial-minded Watts. He tried
to invest the incident with an excess of humor. Any excuse would serve
to still certain disquieting doubts that were springing into alarming
activity. Had he gone the best way to work in allaying Iris's
conscience-stricken qualms? Was he justified in adopting such a bold
line with De Sylva? Could it be possible--no, he refused to harbor any
mean thought of Iris. She loved him, he was sure; his love for her was
at once a torment and an excruciating bliss, and both of these wearing
sensations sadly detracted from the efficiency of the officer of the
watch. So our distracted Philip pulled himself up sharply, paced back
and forth between port and starboard, and surveyed ship, binnacle, and
horizon with alert vigilance.
On the fore-deck groups of sailors and firemen belonging to both
vessels were fraternizing. There could be little room for speculation
as to the subject of their broken talk. It was of De Sylva, of
Brazil's new dictator, of the gold he would control when he became
President again. The slow-moving Teutonic mind was beginning to
assimilate the notion that there was money in this escapade. That the
tatterdemalion then closeted with the _Unser Fritz's_ captain could
obtain a certified check for a million sterling, and twenty-five times
as many millions of francs, and even then remain a man of means, was
unbelievable; but if he regained power, that was different. _Ende gut,
alles gut_. There might be pickings in it.
Soon after sunset Iris reappeared. She walked on the after deck with
San Benavides, and seemed to be listening with great attention to
something he was telling her. Hozier was often compelled to look that
way in order to make certain that the _Sao Geronimo_ was not
overhauling the ship in one of her circling flights over the wide
channel. He wondered what in the world San Benavides was saying that
his chatter should be so interesting, and he acknowledged with a pang
that Iris was deliberately avoiding his own occasional glances in her
direction.
There is no saying what would have happened had he known that the
Brazilian was relating the scene that took place on the bridge,
suppressing its prime motive, and twisting it greatly to Hozier's
detriment, though with an adroit touch that deprived Iris of any power
to resent his words. Indeed, she read her own meaning into Philip's
anxiety to reach Pernambuco, whereas San Benavides was striving to
instill the belief that she would find excellent friends at Maceio.
She was far too loyal-hearted to suspect Philip of a hidden purpose in
urging that the voyage should end in one port rather than another. But
she could not forget that he said repeatedly they would be married in
Pernambuco. Indeed, the promise had a glamour of its own, even though
it could never be fulfilled. More than once her cheeks glowed with a
rush of color that San Benavides attributed to his own delightful
personality, and, when she paled again, his voice sank to a deeply
sympathetic note.
And here came Watts, rejuvenated, having imbibed many pints of the
despised lager, and humming gaily:
Beware, Beware!
Trust her not!
She is foo-oo-ooling thee!
Confound the fellow. Why could he not chant the piratical doggerel
that Coke abhorred? That, at least, would have been more appropriate
to present surroundings? But would it? Ah, Philip felt a twinge then.
"Touché!" chortled some unseen imp who plied a venomous rapier. Thank
goodness, a sailor was standing by the ship's bell, with his hand on a
bit of cord tied to the clapper. It would soon be seven o'clock. Even
the companionship of the uncouth skipper was preferable to this
brooding solitariness.
When Hozier was relieved, and summoned to a meal in the saloon with
Norrie and some of the ship's own officers, Iris was nowhere visible.
He went straight to her cabin, and knocked.
"Who is it?" she asked.
"I, Philip. Will you be on deck in a quarter of an hour?"
"No."
"But this time _I_ want to tell _you_ something."
"Philip, dear, I am weary. I must rest--and--I dare not meet you."
"Dare not?"
"I am afraid of myself. Please leave me."
He caught the sob in her voice, and it unmanned him; he stalked off,
raging. He remembered how the fiend, in Gounod's incomparable opera,
whispered in the lover's ear: "Thou fool, wait for night and the moon!"
and he was wroth with himself for the memory. While off duty he kept
strict watch and ward over the gangway in which Iris's cabin was
situated. It was useless; she remained hidden.
The _Unser Fritz_ was now heading southwest, and "reeling off her ten
knots an hour like clockwork," as Norrie put it. The Recife, that
enormous barrier reef which blockades hundreds of miles of the
Brazilian coast, caused no anxiety to Coke. He was well acquainted
with these waters, and he held on stoutly until the occulting light of
Maceio showed low over the sea straight ahead. It was then after
midnight, and the land was still ten miles distant, but the ship
promptly resumed her role of lame duck, lest a prowling gunboat met and
interrogated her.
As Coke had told Iris she might expect to be ashore about two o'clock,
she waited until half-past one ere coming on deck. Despite her
unalterable decision to abide by the hideous compact entered into with
her uncle and Bulmer, her first thought now was to find Hozier. Though
the sky was radiant with stars, a slight haze on the surface of the sea
shrouded the ship's decks and passages in an uncanny darkness. Coke's
orders forbade the display of any lights whatsoever, except those in
the engine-room and the three essential lamps carried externally. So
the _Unser Fritz_ was gloomy, and the plash of the sea against her worn
plates had an ominous sound, while the glittering white eye of the
lighthouse winked evilly across the black plain in front.
In a word Iris was thoroughly wretched, and not a little disturbed by
the near prospect of landing in a foreign country, which would probably
be plunged into civil war by the mere advent of De Sylva. It need
hardly be said that, under these circumstances, Hozier was the one man
in whose company she would feel reasonably safe. But she could not see
him anywhere. Coke and Watts, with the Brazilians and a couple of
Germans, were on the bridge, but Hozier was not to be found.
At last she hailed one of the _Andromeda's_ men whom she met in a
gangway.
"Mr. Hozier, miss?" said he. "Oh, he's forrard, right up in the bows,
keepin' a lookout. This is a ticklish place to enter without a pilot,
an' we've passed two already."
This information added to her distress. She ought not to go to him.
Full well she knew that her presence might distract him from an
all-important task. So she sat forlornly on the fore-hatch, waiting
there until he might leave his post, reviewing all the bizarre
procession of events since she climbed an elm-tree in the garden of
Linden House on a Sunday afternoon now so remote that it seemed to be
the very beginning of life. The adventures to which that elm-tree
conducted her were oddly reminiscent of the story of Jack and the
Beanstalk. For once, the true had outrivaled the fabulous.
The steamer crept on lazily, and Iris fancied the hour must be nearer
five o'clock than two when she heard Hozier's voice ring out clearly:
"Buoy on the port bow!"
There was a movement among the dim figures on the bridge. A minute
later Hozier cried again:
"Buoy on the starboard bow!"
She understood then that they were in a marked channel. Already the
road was narrowing. Soon they would be ashore. At last Hozier came.
He saw her as he jumped down from the forecastle deck.
"Why are you here, Iris?" was all he said. She looked so bowed, so
humbled, that he could not find it in his heart to reproach her for
having avoided him earlier.
"I wanted to be near you," she whispered. "I--I am frightened, Philip.
I am terrified by the unknown. Somehow, on the rock our dangers were
measurable. Here, we shall soon be swallowed up among a whole lot of
people."
They heard Coke's gruff order to the watch to clear the falls of the
jolly-boat. The _Unser Fritz_ was going dead slow. On the starboard
side were the lights of a large town, but the opposite shore was somber
and vague.
"Are we going to land at once, in a small boat?" said Iris timidly.
"I fancy there is a new move on foot. A gunboat is moored half a mile
down stream. You missed her because your back was turned. She has
steam up, and could slip her cables in a minute. They saw her from the
bridge, of course, but I did not report her, as there was a chance that
my hail might be heard, and we came in so confidently that we are
looked on as a local trader. Come, let us buy a programme."
He took her by the arm with that masterful gentleness that is so
comforting to a woman when danger is rife. Even his jesting allusion
to their theatrical arrival in port was cheering. They reached the
bridge. Some sailors were lowering a boat as quietly as possible.
Dom Corria approached with outstretched hand.
"Good-by, Miss Yorke," he said. "I am leaving you for a few hours, not
longer. When next we meet I ought to have a sure grip of the
Presidential ladder, and I shall climb quickly. Won't you wish me
luck?"
"I wish you all good fortune, Dom Corria," said Iris. "May your plans
succeed without bloodshed!"
"Ah, this is South America, remember. Our conflicts are usually short
and fierce. _Au revoir_, Mr. Hozier. By daybreak we shall be better
friends."
San Benavides also bade them farewell, with an easy grace not wholly
devoid of melodramatic pathos. The dandy and the man of rags climbed
down a rope ladder, the boat fell away from the ship's side, and the
night took them.
"What did he mean by saying you would be 'better friends'?" whispered
the girl. "Have you quarreled?"
"We had a small dispute as to the wisdom of landing you here," said
Philip. "Perhaps I was wrong. He is a clever man, and he surely knows
his own country."
"Mr. Hozier!" cried Coke.
"Yes, sir."
"Is all clear forrard to let go anchor?"
"Yes, sir."
"Give her thirty. You go and see to it, will you?"
Hozier made off at a run.
Iris recalled the last time she heard similar words. She shuddered.
Would that placid foreshore blaze out into a roar of artillery, and the
worn-out _Unser Fritz_, like the worn-out _Andromeda_, stagger and
lurch into a watery grave.
But the only noise that jarred the peaceful night was the rattle of the
cable and winch. The ship fell away a few feet, and was held. There
was no moving light on the river. Not even a police boat or Customs
launch had put off. Maceio was asleep; it was quite unprepared for the
honor of a Presidential visit.